On a sunny day between opening-round games of the NCAA tournament, Loyola’s 98-year-old team chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, planned to go for a simple lunch down the street. There was just one problem. “We couldn’t do it — everybody knows her.”

Concealed beneath the cuffs of Allen Robinson’s navy pinstripe suit and white dress shirt were two bracelets. A green one on his right wrist and an orange one on his left. Souvenirs from his hospital stay last September when he had the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee surgically reconstructed....

Here is a dollars-and-sense breakdown of the contracts for players the Bears signed in 2018. Check back as it will be updated when there are new additions. CB Prince Amukamara Overview: $27 million, three-year contract, $18 million guaranteed 2018: $3 million signing bonus, $3.5 million base salary,...

Cubs

Cubs left-hander Jon Lester will face the Reds in what could be an extended start at 8:05 p.m. Monday at Goodyear Ballpark. Lester will be stretched out in his second-to-last start of spring training in preparation for his opening-day assignment March 29 in Miami. Meanwhile, reliever Pedro Strop...

A person familiar with the plans tells The Associated Press that Major League Baseball is working to finalize a two-game series between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox at London's Olympic Stadium on June 29-30 in 2019, the sport's first regular-season games in Europe. The Red Sox have the...

White Sox

Back in Sarasota, Fla., during the spring of 1996, White Sox camp was roiled early by the disappearance of Tony Phillips, who had signed as a free-agent over the winter. Phillips had called it quits after belatedly deciding his two-year, $3.6 million contract was unsatisfactory, giving the Sox...

Minnesota Twins shortstop Jorge Polanco has been suspended 80 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. The commissioner's office announced the penalty Sunday. Polanco tested positive for Stanozolol and became the sixth player to be banned this year under the major league...

White Sox manager Rick Renteria named James Shields as his opening-day starter Saturday, opting for experience over youth. Shields will make his eighth opening-day start, pitching the first game against the Royals on March 29 in Kansas City. “He has gone through a lot, put himself back on track,...

Bulls

With Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and Lauri Markkanen out and the Bulls employing their 18th starting lineup of the season, Denzel Valentine drew the distinction of being introduced last before Saturday’s home loss to the Cavaliers. Historically, that spot has been saved for the franchise’s best player....

Since last summer, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been playing catch-up with the rest of the NBA. Once the Cavaliers chose to trade Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics, they have been engaged in a race against time to get whole before the postseason begins. Lately, in a season in which the team hopes...

Blackhawks

Alex DeBrincat tried to make up for lost time in a lost season Sunday. The rookie hadn’t scored a goal in 13 games, his longest drought by five games, before he swatted in two during the first period and the go-ahead goal with 3:13 left in the third. But that wasn’t enough to earn the Hawks a victory....

College sports

Purdue center Isaac Haas appears to be done for the season even if Purdue's medical team or its crack engineering department can create an elbow brace that allows him to play in the NCAA tournament. Even if the NCAA approves a protective device for Haas' fractured right elbow, coach Matt Painter...

What a weekend. The top seed in the tournament, No. 1 Virginia, became the first No. 1 seed to ever get knocked off by a No. 16 seed (UMBC). The other top seeds in the South region, No. 2 Cincinnati, No. 3 Tennessee and No. 4 Arizona, also lost. No. 1 Xavier lost in the round of 32 on Sunday night,...

High school sports

Scores and highlights may be emailed to newssunsports@gmail.com Note: Schedules are subject to change because of weather and other factors. TUESDAY'S EVENTS HIGH SCHOOLS BASEBALL Antioch at Woodstock, 4:30 p.m. Grayslake North at Vernon Hills, 4:30 p.m. Johnsburg at Lakes, 4:30 p.m. Libertyville...

Indiana senior Blake Pieroni didn't become a world-class athlete accidentally. But as the Olympic gold medalist and 2014 Chesterton graduate sees his college career coming to a close, he has taken his regimen to an even higher level. Improved diet, further reducing his consumption of sugar and...

Most read sports stories this hour

I called WKGN-AM midday host Cody McClure — the Knoxville, Tenn., sports-talker who tweeted a four-letter insult at Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt — hoping for the best but expecting the worst. I wanted to at least give a so-called professional a chance to defend an outburst I considered unprofessional,...

Fred Hoiberg has a couch in his Advocate Center office on which he occasionally will try to snag a 20-minute nap. The pursuit is a nod to the stresses and demands that engulf NBA head coaches, a fact underscored Monday when Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue became the second coach this season to take...

On a sunny day between opening-round games of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in Dallas, Loyola’s 98-year-old team chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, planned to go for a simple lunch down the street. “We couldn’t do it — everybody knows her,” said Tom Hitcho, the university’s longtime...

Mitch Trubisky is the sun in the Bears’ solar system. General manager Ryan Pace made that perfectly clear Jan. 1 when he openly challenged himself to surround the franchise quarterback with talent. Trubisky then watched Pace hire Matt Nagy, a former Arena League quarterback, to be the coach. And,...

Roger Federer, the world’s top-ranked tennis player, ​​​​was in Chicago on Monday for the first time to help kick off the countdown to September’s Laver Cup. Organizers spent Monday morning setting up a small tennis court next to Millennium Park’s Cloud Gate sculpture. Federer, who had arrived...

Only a few weeks ago, Dan McNeil was talking trade-ins rather than trades. While he enjoyed selling cars – or at least trying to – it clearly was not his forte. “It would have taken me a long time to get good at that. It’s not something that happens overnight,” said McNeil, who last week began...

Finalizing the opening day roster might not be as urgent for the Cubs as the need for insurance during the season. That’s what manager Joe Maddon conveyed Monday as the Cubs try to finalize their roster by their final Cactus League game Sunday. “When it gets down to the very end, there might be...

Ian Happ downplayed the significance of his contributions this spring as manager Joe Maddon assesses various lineup options. “It’s not important who is going to be the leadoff guy,” Happ said. “It’s just the guys we have in the lineup. How deep we are is impressive. There’s no bad spot to hit in...

This is the Sweet 16 matchup nobody predicted. No. 11 seed Loyola (30-5) will face seventh-seeded Nevada (29-7) on Thursday in Atlanta in the South Region, which is without its top four seeds. The Wolf Pack were ranked in the Associated Press poll eight times this season, including the last six,...

Purdue center Isaac Haas appears to be done for the season even if Purdue's medical team or its crack engineering department can create an elbow brace that allows him to play in the NCAA tournament. Even if the NCAA approves a protective device for Haas' fractured right elbow, coach Matt Painter...

Clip and save: Kyle Schwarber will be the Cubs’ leadoff hitter. I don’t know if he’ll be at the top of the order on opening day in Miami a week from Thursday, but you watch, he’ll be there and he’ll be there quickly, and I think this year he’ll be there with better results. I don’t have inside...

The Cubs likely will finalize their 25-man roster before their Cactus League finale on Sunday against the Kansas City Royals at Surprise. In addition to performance, there are a few procedural issues among the relievers for the team to consider. First, Eddie Butler is out of options and would be...

Matt Spiegel will serve as a fill-in host at WSCR-AM 670, the former co-host of the “Spiegel and Parkins” midday show told the Tribune Wednesday. In a massive shakeup at The Score this week, Spiegel was displaced from his 9 a.m.-1 p.m. slot with Danny Parkins, who was promoted to the 1-6 p.m. shift...

On the day a videotaped interview revealed Martina Navratilova’s outrage at learning John McEnroe makes “at least 10 times as much money” to provide Wimbledon analysis for BBC, McEnroe was in Chicago to promote the upcoming Laver Cup. And it wasn’t long during Monday’s media scrum before the tennis...

Cubs left-hander Jon Lester will face the Reds in what could be an extended start at 8:05 p.m. Monday at Goodyear Ballpark. Lester will be stretched out in his second-to-last start of spring training in preparation for his opening-day assignment March 29 in Miami. Meanwhile, reliever Pedro Strop...

Twenty minutes before tipoff in a tunnel leading to the Gentile Arena basketball court, towering Loyola players formed a circle around a 98-year-old nun as she quietly prayed. Music thumped, fans screamed and cheerleaders shook pompoms on the court in anticipation of Wednesday night’s game against...

The Cubs reportedly handed out 1,908 World Series rings last year, seemingly rewarding anyone with a passing relationship with the organization. But only 25 men were on the actual roster when the drought ended, and that group will always be linked for ending the 107-year drought. As catcher Miguel...

David Ross gained plenty of attention for his cult hero status on the Cubs’ 2016 World Series title run, and he expanded his fame by performing on “Dancing With the Stars” shortly after his retirement. But Ross, a special assistant with the Cubs, isn’t the only member of his family with entertainment...

Dan McNeil is returning to weekdays on WSCR-AM 670, teamed afternoons with Danny Parkins, as part of a shake-up that will have Dan Bernstein moving to middays, sources said. Station management, silent Tuesday, earlier denied changes were in the works at the Entercom Communications station. The...

In less than a week, new Bears receiver Allen Robinson has changed both his jersey number and his Twitter handle, signaling he may be moving on from his nickname “AR15.” “New twitter handle” was all he wrote Sunday morning from his account, which he changed from @Thee_AR15 to @AllenRobinson. He...

The once-common occurrences of wild swings on two-strike pitches and errant throws on routine plays are diminishing for Javier Baez. That’s the latest observation from manager Joe Maddon, who believes Baez is making strides toward becoming a more finished product. “We’re reining it in pretty (well),”...

Another game, another missed opportunity. One could say that about the Bulls’ victory Thursday in Memphis, Tenn., and also about Saturday night’s home game against LeBron James and the Cavaliers. There’s a reason so much ink has been printed and so many airwaves filled with talk about the chemistry...

The comparisons were as inevitable as they were unfair. When the Blackhawks traded defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson to the Coyotes for defenseman Connor Murphy, they did not receive Niklas Hjalmarsson in return. Hjalmarsson helped the Hawks win three Stanley Cups as a dependable back-end player who...

With Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and Lauri Markkanen out and the Bulls employing their 18th starting lineup of the season, Denzel Valentine drew the distinction of being introduced last before Saturday’s home loss to the Cavaliers. Historically, that spot has been saved for the franchise’s best player....